New mobile subscribers will be receiving new mobile numbers with a different prefix after service providers exhausted the 07** prefix.
Telco giants; Safaricom and Airtel have reportedly already applied for the new 01** prefix and will roll out new lines starting with 0110, 0111 and 0100, 0101, 0102 respectively.
Director General of the Communications Authority of Kenya, Francis Wangusi says “The move to release the new series of numbers is necessitated by increased demand for SIM cards, mobile data and machine-to-machine communication, and other emerging technologies that require telecommunication numbers,”.
Mr Wangusi also said the regulator had provided for 100 million lines under the 07**- prefix which had been exhausted due to multiple registration of SIM cards for cell phones as well as new Internet-enabled devices introduced in the market.
Safaricom is expected to roll out two million numbers, while Airtel will roll out three million.
Telkom Kenya has not applied for the prefix as the company is currently waiting for regulatory approval from the Communications Authority of Kenya, regarding its proposed merger with Airtel Kenya.
Data from the CA’s (Communications Authority of Kenya) latest statistics indicates that the number of mobile phone subscribers stood at 49 million as at December last year (2018).
It is a known fact however, that almost a third of Kenyans have multiple SIM cards thus pushing mobile penetration in the country past the 100 percent mark.
More than 50 million SIM cards have also been taken up by SIM card enabled gadgets such as smart home devices and modems.
These connected devices – popularly categorised under the Internet of Things (IoT) – create a network link which allows for their automation and remote access.
Device manufacturers are also finding ways to embedding sensors into everyday items ranging from televisions and refrigerators, to blenders and shower heads thus creating a wider variety of IoT products for tech savvy consumers.
More than 10 billion devices are estimated to be part of the IoT today with this number expected to more than quadruple over the next two years.
The CA’s Director General, Francis Wangusi said; “We have set aside the 03** prefix, which entails hundreds of millions of SIM cards between 0301 to 0309, for the IoT, which we expect will register significant demand and growth in the coming years,”.
Mobile users in Kenya, could soon have limits in the number of SIM cards they can own as the telecommunications regulator (CA) is also looking to review existing laws that allow for multiple SIM card ownership.
It is currently in discussions with mobile network operators (MNOs) to review regulations around SIM card registration in a bid to reduce cases where they are used by criminals.
Mr. Wangusi said; “We have had cases of one ID being used to register multiple SIM cards which are then used for terrorism and money laundering. We are talking to MNOs to see how we can review the policy,”.
The Director General added that; “Our neighbours in Tanzania have begun limiting one subscriber to one SIM card and while we may not adopt the same policy, we are exploring all available options including biometric registration of mobile subscribers.”
Wangusi also said that the Huduma Namba would be a cheaper alternative to carrying out fresh biometric registration of mobile subscribers, adding that the regulator would seek to link the Huduma Namba to the details of mobile subscribers’.
